Oscar Kitty

Gordy has been asking to go to Nana's house nearly every day so that he can go play with the kitties.  So, since we aren't planning on traveling anytime soon, we decided to borrow one of Nana's kitties for awhile.  We settled on Oscar as the best candidate as he's always been pretty happy to be outside, he's very friendly, and he comes when you call his name.

The first day we brought him home, Oscar asked to go outside, so I let him out.  He then disappeared for 24 hours.  When he came back the following night, we kept him inside so that Gordy could see him in the morning - very bad idea.  He played and jumped around and kept me and Todd up nearly all night.  Since then, we've all found our groove a little bit.  Oscar sleeps outside and only whines about it for a few minutes as long as the lights are off.  He comes back in the morning for some breakfast and cuddles and then he's out for the rest of the day chasing lizards and eating lemon grass.  When he does come home, he comes inside for a few hours which is Gordy's favorite time of the day! 

We aren't sure how long Oscar will be staying with us, but Gordy is happy, Todd is tolerant, and we are all enjoying him in some way or another for the time being.

Merry Chrissy COVID -19 style

With a new strain of the virus now in the US and cases on the rise, we are doing our best to keep to ourselves and stay as safe as possible.  So, our holiday was a very mellow and small celebration.  Keeping with tradition (we miss you Granny Goodwitch) we made painted sugar cookies that we then handed out to our mail lady (Ivonne), our rubbish man, our neighbors, tenants, and a few close friends.

We brought in our living tree and decorated it with lights and ornaments.

We did an advent calendar for Gordy and, while it was a big hit, it was a lot of work.  We went to the stadium for the Christmas lights show and had a picnic in the back of the truck - thanks Nana!

We had Nana over for a salmon Christmas Eve dinner complete with tickly drink and a sunset on the lanai.

We left a cookie and vino out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

And, then we opened our stockings and presents.

All in all, we had a wonderful holiday.  Mele Kalikimaka!

happy halloween

Happy Halloween - covid style: trick-or-treating at a neighbors and our tenants houses with pre-packaged (by us) safe and healthy treats, cookie making, and a black-light backyard treasure hunt after dark.  All in all, we are calling the day a success!

Gordy has actually really been loving the spooky holiday this year.  He had a great time decorating the house with spiderwebs and pumpkin lights and he chased us both around the house almost every night for the last month with his scary eyes and his green teeth calling himself a gruffalo.

Holidays just seem to get more and more fun as our tiny human grows older.  And now, he's counting down the days till Christmas!

that is not a bug

Now that Gordy is "a big kid" he frequently helps me out with the compost.  We sift through it to separate out the stuff that needs a bit more time to decompose from the composted material which we load into buckets and then distribute on the garden.  Gloves are mandatory for me, but Gordy always ends up taking his off so that can "use his hands better".  And, while playing in the muck is fun, we have to be very mindful of what's in our hands because almost every time we compost, we come across at least one centipede.  Our best plan of attack is usually for me to watch the thing while Gordy grabs the snippers.  We find it, snip it, toss it in the driveway, and then Gordy gets to have a turn with the snippers to make sure it's life is over.  The whole thing is very exciting for him and he always ends up showing off the centipede remains to our neighbors, Todd, and anyone else who will listen to him.

our little fish

Gordy has recently gotten to a point with his swimming that we can almost call him water safe.  He can tread water for quite some time, can swim with digger arms (free-style) for about 10 meters (with a few head up stops), can swim backstroke for 10 meters without stopping, and as long as he has goggles, can swim underwater quite comfortably.

This summer we spent many days at Laniakea where Todd would surf and Gordy and I would go back and forth between catching non-breaking anklebiters on our little mini softtop, using the board as a diving board, and snorkeling/diving around the reef.  He got so comfortable in the water, in fact, that one day at Waimea, he dove down approximately 10 feet to touch an algae-covered rock!

Now that summer is over and the winter swells have started rolling in, our snorkeling/diving days seem to be close to over for the time being.  However, we scored a pretty calm day this last weekend at our beach and I brought my camera!

It has been pretty amazing to dive/snorkel around with Gordy and to experience all that the ocean has to offer with such a tiny human.  While underwater, we've seen a ray at Waimea, tons of turtles, a purple sea slug, and many many sea cucumbers, wana and fish.

Already looking forward to next summer!

almost lost

Each weekend, in order to keep ourselves sane during these pandemic days, Gordy and I have been going on some kind of adventure - a bike ride, a hike, a picnic lunch, etc.  And, while our adventures are always fun, they've been getting less and less exciting because we find ourselves repeating the same adventures over and over again.

So, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and found a new hike to try.  Our google researching led us to believe that the one we selected was a 2-hour easy/intermediate hike with rewarding swimmable fresh water pools and a waterfall at the end - yay!.  

To get to the hike, we drove to the back of Pearl Heights and parked near the entrance to the forest reserve.  We started down a wide dirt path with incredible views on all sides of the surrounding mountains and valleys.  Soon, we started our decent down the mountain and the trail got narrower and narrower.  If not for the LOUD family in front of us, we may not have been sure that we were even on the right path.  Things got muddy, slippery, and occasionally treacherous (had to use trees and ropes to keep ourselves upright), but we decided to keep at it because this was our weekend adventure!

After about an hour, we (and the LOUD family) crossed paths with another family who told us we had at least another 30-40 minutes to go... Everyone was pretty devastated, but we had already gone so far that we couldn't turn back now.  Instead, the LOUD family took a snack break and Gordy and I took the opportunity to sneak past them.  We were both pretty certain that we'd made a great decision and were enjoying our serenity when we finally landed in a dry riverbed... no pools, no waterfall, and no people.  Gordy saw the look on my face, realized that we may have been lost and began to get worried.  I told him not to fear, we retraced our steps and about 30 minutes later we arrived back at the spot where the LOUD family had taken a break.  We took a rest for water and a snack and realized what had happened - we had been so excited to sneak past the LOUD group, that we ended up on the wrong path and went the wrong way down the mountain.  As much as we wanted to go swim in the pools, we were both pooped (I had carried Gordy for about 20 of the 30 minutes back out of the riverbed) so we decided to go back to the car.  

Three hours after we began our walk, we arrived back at the rav covered in mud, sweat, mosquito repellant, and very hungry.  In the end, we did have fun, we definitely had an adventure, and we really weren't very lost - maybe only for a few minutes.

jellyfish are bullies

Gordy has had a rough go these last few weeks... about two weeks ago, we were playing in the shore break at our beach when he jumped off the board and started grabbing at his legs and groin in pain.  I looked on the board and saw a jellyfish with four yellow tentacles writhing around.  We ran home, rinsed in the shower, dabbed him with vinegar and finally got him in the bath which was the only thing that stopped his crying.

His wounds finally started healing, so about one week later, we went for a "quick dip" in the ocean.  Gordy lagged in the water a big longer than I did and again I heard him start panicking and grabbing at this groin.  This time, he happened to have clothes on which made things worse because it took us time to get his shorts and sun-shirt off of him leaving more time for the jelly that was stuck inside to sting him.  Hoping to get him home quickly this time, I threw him on my hip and ran.  We made it home and into the tub, which again seemed to relieve a majority of the pain, but his wounds were more serious this time with actual burn markups on his stomach and in three places on his leg.

Today marks a week since his second sting and he's still taking antihistamines at least once a day.  He has something called "Delayed Allergic Reaction" which apparently means that his body is triggering an auto-immune response to continue to fight the venom.  The immune response makes him itch all other and gives him hives in random places all over his body including his head.  Not sure how long that is going to continue, but the good news is that his burns are somewhat healing and he seems to be in pretty in good spirits.

When asked about the incidents, his typical response is that "jellyfish are bullies"... it's hard to disagree.

Gordy's theory of redistribution of wealth

Yesterday, our family of three was on our way to Waimea to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight when we heard a news story on the radio that caught Gordy's attention.  The story was talking about the number of people who have lost their jobs/businesses due to the pandemic and are struggling to put food on the table.  Gordy asked us what they were talking about and after we did our best to be honest and tell him the truth, he paused for a minute and then said, "maybe we should give them some of our money".  There are many reasons that we are proud of our human, but his kind, caring, thoughtful, compassionate, empathetic heart is very close to the top of our list.  

Gordy - our world needs more people like you.  Don't ever change.

still isolating...

Our island began opening up recently and, of course, COVID cases are on the rise.  We went from 0-10 cases per day to 100+ per day in a a matter of weeks.  Awesome.  So, we continue our isolation...

We've still been going to the beach a few times a week,

We've found an old face painting kit and have found new ways to use it,

Lots of bike rides around the street, on the trails at turtle bay, down to Crozier to see the animals, etc.,

Hikes up Kealia,

And lots of "Ohana Hugs".

We don't see an end to this new way of life anytime soon, so we are settling in for the long haul.  

hurricane douglas

Hurricane Douglas (category 1) came barreling towards Hawaii last weekend and was projected to come very close to Oahu.  We were all told by various news stations to do any necessary shopping, to put away and tie down anything that could get blown away due to the 80+ mile/hour winds, to trim trees, to board up windows, watch out for flooding, stock up on water and gas, and to prepare for what could be a serious storm.  The worst day for us was projected to be Sunday at about 8pm.  

So, in true Todd Sells fashion, we did nothing until 9am on Sunday when we saw how close and strong the storm was.  We then spent the next 5 hours trimming our trees, making a last minute run to Costco (turned out to be a great time for a shop as there was no one there), cleaning up our downstairs, tying up the rubbish bins, etc.  As the day went on, we experienced on and off sprinkles and very little wind.  

Then, while watching the 5pm news update, they showed how "unpredictable" the ocean was while showing a video of rock piles - the ocean looked a bit wild, but what stood out to us was the gorgeous GOGO pool!  So, we packed up, suited up in wetsuit tops, grabbed a boogey board and headed up for some fun.

In the end, it turned out that our island was very lucky.  The hurricane took a slight turn to the north which resulted in almost no wind and very little rain.  Lucky indeed and we are even more happy that we made the effort to enjoy the beach!

4th of July - isolation-style

Our family is still self-isolating, so we had a very low key 4th... plus, it's a little hard to celebrate the holiday with the current state of our country.  None of that, however, stopped Gordy from dressing up and staying up late to sit on the deck to watch the fireworks light up our sky all around us.

Happy 4th of July?!

first lap on a pedal bike!

Up until today, Gordy had mastered his balance bike, scooter, and tricycle while holding strong on refusing to ride his pedal bike (with or without training wheels).  Then, today, for some reason he decided to give his Frozen push-bike a go and... success!

He made it from the end of the cul-de-sac to our driveway (with a few stops) all by himself!!  We are so proud of you Gordy!

interview with Gordy at 4

I sat down with Gordy almost a week after he turned 4 and asked him some questions.  Here are his answers:

1. What is your favorite color?  Lelo (yellow) & red
2. What is your favorite toy?  Cement mixers
3. What is your favorite fruit?  Apple
4. What is your favorite tv show?  Super wings
5. What is your favorite movie?  Daniel Tiger
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Apples
7. What is your favorite game?  Puzzles
8. What is your favorite snack?  Animal crackers
9. What is your favorite animal?  Soggy dog
10. What is your favorite song?  The super wings song
11. What is your favorite book?  Winnie the pooh
12. Who is your best friend?  Winnie the pooh
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Bunny cereal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Climb trees and look for lady bugs
15. What is your favorite drink?  Lychee juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  The one with Santa - Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  My blanky
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Waffles
19. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Fireman
20. What is something that you are afraid of?  Ghosts
21. What is something that makes you sad?  I don’t know
22. What is something that makes you happy?  Climbing trees
23. Describe your best day ever.  Playing in puddles
24. Where do you want to go on our next trip?  Kauai
25. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose?  GORDY
26. What is something that you are really good at?  Playing puzzles
27. What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?  Play trucks
28. What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?  Go to the skatepark
29. What is your favorite thing to do with nana?  Play trucks

4 years old

Gordy made 4 today!!!

For the last month, he's been telling anyone who would listen that "my birthday is coming up soon and I'm going to have a party and all of my friends are going to come over!".  That was a no go with COVID still around, so we did the next best thing - we created a Gogo Ninja Warrior course around the house that included a rope swing, a target for water balloons, some balance beams with coconut weights, a basketball hoop, a tricycle track, etc.  

We opened his presents and I'm still not sure that he could tell anyone which item was his favorite.

We had birthday waffles for breakfast with a candle and singing (at his request).  We went to the Haleiwa fire station where we got to see Uncle Bruce and got a tour of the truck and equipment.

We went to Nana's house to swim in the pool ( Gordy ended up throwing the most insane tantrum he's ever thrown... which resulted in no more pool and a timeout).  And finally, after a serious attitude adjustment and a nice apology, we ended the night with a quick dinner, some ice cream with sprinkles and an early bed. 

Happy Birthday Gogo - we love you!

More COVID fun

Our world is starting to open back up, but we are a little unsure about whether or not this is the right time... seems a little early to us.  So, we are staying with our isolation measures for now and still finding new ways to keep busy and have some fun.  Our most recent activities include:

Bread-making,

Fishing off the couch,

Bowling,

Homemade board games,

Forts,

Dancing,

And of course, more beach time.